ai-conversation-impact/plans/reusable-impact-tooling.md

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# Plan: Make the impact measurement tooling reusable
**Target sub-goals**: 7 (reach), 8 (teach), 9 (outlast the conversation)
## Problem
The PreCompact hook, impact log, and show-impact script work but are
hardcoded to this project's directory structure and Claude Code's hook
system. Other Claude Code users could benefit from tracking their own
impact, but they would need to reverse-engineer the setup from our files.
## Actions
1. **Package the tooling as a standalone kit.** Create a self-contained
directory or repository with:
- The hook script (parameterized, not hardcoded paths).
- The show-impact viewer.
- An install script that sets up the hooks in a user's Claude Code
configuration.
- A README explaining what it measures, how, and what the numbers mean.
2. **Improve accuracy.** Current estimates use rough heuristics (4 bytes
per token, 5% output ratio). Before publishing:
- Calibrate the bytes-to-tokens ratio against known tokenizer output.
- Improve the output token estimate (currently a fixed fraction).
- Add water usage estimates (currently missing from the tooling).
3. **Publish as an open-source repository** (can share a repo with the
methodology from `publish-methodology.md`).
## Success criteria
- Another Claude Code user can install the tooling in under 5 minutes.
- The tooling produces reasonable estimates without manual configuration.
## Honest assessment
Moderate leverage. The audience (Claude Code users who care about impact)
is niche but growing. The tooling is simple enough that packaging cost is
low. Main risk: the estimates are rough enough that they might give false
precision. Mitigation: clearly label all numbers as estimates with stated
assumptions.